The College Fix

ANALYSIS: 3.5 percent of identified professors who are registered to vote at ASU are Republicans, while 52 percent are Democrats

Democrat professors at Arizona State University appear to outnumber Republicans by about 15 to 1 in 12 departments, a College Fix analysis found.

Additionally, The Fix found that there are zero identifiable Republican professors in at least three departments: classics, communication, and women and gender studies.

The Fix conducted its research using voter registration data and identified 303 party-affiliated professors out of 544 across 12 departments.

Of those 303 — 284 were Democrats, 19 were Republican, and 17 were registered with third parties. Another 137 were unaffiliated, while 87  unidentified.

This means 3.5 percent of identified professors who are registered to vote are Republicans, while 52 percent are Democrats, when broken down by the two major parties.

The Fix obtained voter registration lists from Maricopa County through a public records request and only looked at professors, not lecturers, adjuncts, or emeriti faculty.

Of the 12 departments, psychology had the greatest disparity with 48 Democrat professors and 1 Republican.

Interdisciplinary studies had 27 Democrat professors and 1 Republican, while English had 64 Democrats and 6 Republicans. No department had more than 6 Republicans.

There may be crossover in some departments. When professors are listed in multiple departments, The Fix puts them under what appears to be their primary discipline. These departments may have Republicans from other majors teaching classes, in addition to the other political parties.

Two of the Republican professors told The College Fix via email that ASU is hostile toward conservative views while a third professor said the school upholds academic freedom.

ASU history Professor Donald Critchlow told The College Fix he is not surprised by The Fix’s findings.

“When I was hired at ASU fourteen years ago, I was an ‘intellectual diversity’ appointment. The hiring committee knew I was a conservative, but I had a strong academic resume,” he said.

“Today, few, if any, of my colleagues talk about ‘intellectual diversity.’ Today, I am a pariah among most of my colleagues because of my known political outlook,” Critchlow told The Fix.

He also said “hostility toward conservatives” has “increased in the last decade among the faculty.”

He said he doesn’t discuss his political views in the classroom but encourages “students with different viewpoints to express themselves and to challenge [him].”

Critchlow said he also believes political and ideological views among faculty influence curriculum and hiring, though often in subtle ways. Job searches and course offerings tend to focus on topics that align with the prevailing perspectives of the institution, he said.

For instance, a search for a candidate in environmental history or gender history is likely to overlook those with differing views, such as a climate crisis skeptic or someone who emphasizes the importance of motherhood, he said.

He suggested that university administrators focus faculty searches on fields where conservatives are more likely to be interested, such as “Constitutional History, Military History, Economic History, Business History, American Political Thought, and Western Civilization.”

“Change needs to come from the top through Boards of Regents and state legislatures insisting on faculty hires and a curriculum beyond just identity politics. Such an emphasis won’t necessarily lead to more Republicans or conservatives being hired, but sure will create greater opportunities for them,” Critchlow told The Fix.

MORE: Zero Republican professors found across six departments at U. Oklahoma

He said he believes “the entire academic system needs intense reforming for the betterment of university education and the nation itself.”

Another ASU professor, who requested to remain anonymous, told The Fix that she regularly censors herself “on political and social issues, especially with [her] colleagues.”

“Although it sounds cowardly, this is due to fear of retaliation, whether overt or covert. This fear is especially salient because I do not have tenure and have seen it occur within my school,” the professor told The Fix.

She provided an example in which two conservative professors were falsely accused of leaking information about faculty activism. University administrators, backed by many faculty members, attempted to “cancel some of their programming.”

Despite the fallout, the faculty members retained their positions due to tenure; without it, they likely would have been dismissed, she said.

“Overall, the ideas of conservative faculty are more likely to be dismissed or demeaned simply because the speaker is conservative – not due to the merit of the ideas themselves,” the professor said.

“Moreover, academic freedom is squelched, due to fear of retaliation. Keep in mind that retaliation can take a variety of forms from being deemed a persona non grata in social and academic circles to losing one’s job,” she said.

She also called academic departments “echo chambers for ‘bad’ ideas” as “many faculty and their students can no longer think critically about certain ideas such as DEI, because they are never challenged.”

“This, of course, works its way into the curriculum where many classes and syllabi became showcases for Marxist and other illiberal ideologies,” she said.

Further, students are often not exposed to diverse perspectives on issues like abortion and may not even be aware that strong opposing arguments exist, she said.

Additionally, students with right-leaning or centrist views may feel intimidated and reluctant to share their opinions, fearing it could negatively impact their grades, she said.

A third ASU professor, who also requested to remain anonymous, told The Fix via email he is a “registered Republican but not an ideological one.”

“I am a mutt in terms of political leanings: I’m right-of-center on some issues (economic, foreign policy, some issues of law and order), classically liberal on others (individual freedoms), but mostly pragmatic,” he said.

He said he believes that while a “small number” of faculty members may be biased in their views of colleagues’ political affiliations, this bias does not have a significant impact. He has not observed any restrictions on academic freedom at ASU.

“Faculty shouldn’t be presenting their personal political views in the classroom—liberal or conservative—and I think most don’t,” the professor told The Fix.

“My sense is that ASU is NOT Columbia or Harvard or Penn or many other such places. Our faculty are focusing on doing great work,” he said via email.

The College Fix also reached out to Arizona State University media relations, ASU’s College Republicans chapter, the school’s Young Democrats chapter, and the classics, communication, and women and gender studies departments via email for comment in the last week.

The Fix inquired about the departments’ responses to the lack of political diversity and how that could impact the variety of perspectives presented in the classroom. None responded.

The Fix previously analyzed the political affiliations of professors at the University of Arizona and found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans 28 to 1.

Breakdown:

Classics
Democrats: 3
Republicans: 0
Third party: 0
Unaffiliated: 1
Unknown: 3

Communications
Democrats: 18
Republicans: 0
Third party: 1
Unaffiliated: 8
Unknown: 5

Economics
Democrats: 10
Republicans: 2
Third party: 3
Unaffiliated: 11
Unknown: 14

English
Democrats: 64
Republicans: 6
Third party: 1
Unaffiliated: 19
Unknown: 12

Gender and Women’s Studies
Democrats: 7
Republicans: 0
Third party: 1
Unaffiliated: 4
Unknown: 3

History
Democrats: 22
Republicans: 2
Third party: 0
Unaffiliated: 6
Unknown: 10

Interdisciplinary
Democrats: 27
Republicans: 1
Third party: 3
Unaffiliated: 22
Unknown: 9

Philosophy
Democrats: 11
Republicans: 2
Third party: 0
Unaffiliated: 8
Unknown: 3

Politics and Global Studies
Democrats: 21
Republicans: 2
Third party: 1
Unaffiliated: 25
Unknown: 8

Psychology
Democrats: 48
Republicans: 1
Third party: 3
Unaffiliated: 12
Unknown: 8

Religious Studies
Democrats: 15
Republicans: 1
Third party: 0
Unaffiliated: 15
Unknown: 8

Sociology
Democrats: 38
Republicans: 2
Third Party: 4
Unaffiliated: 9
Unknown: 11

MORE: Zero Republican professors found in 6 departments at Florida State U.

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